Here is a situation which happened this week. A candidate interviewed with a major corporation for a full-time management position. The candidate received an offer; however, it was for a lower paying support role.

The candidate very much wants to work for this company. Here are some options to make this a win-win so that the company gets the best talent and the candidate receives a fair market value for his/her services.

Negotiable compensation options can include:

Sign-on bonus

Early performance review

Stock options

Additional paid time off

Flex hours

Private office (instead of a cube!)

Preferred parking

Transportation allowance

Childcare allowance

Discounts on corporate products

Tuition reimbursement

Paid membership for industry associations, events, and seminars

As a candidate, should the package not suit your needs, perhaps the opportunity exists for you to start as a consultant or contract-to-hire.

Most important, if you want the job, be reasonable and open to compromise. Don’t be greedy. Know your market value as well as future growth opportunities within the preferred company.

Should there not be a meeting of the minds, or the package just does not feel right, then wait for other doors to open.

Remember the game of telephone where you sat in a circle and whispered into the ear of the person sitting next to you? By the time you finished the circle, the original message was always garbled.

What happens in business when information is lost, edited, or interpreted incorrectly? Especially as business communication builds partnerships and alliances.

Are you sharing information, consulting, or negotiating? Take the time to explain your point of view and elaborate on what you’re trying to achieve. No one can read your mind. How is your stream of information perceived?

Face to face meetings with colleagues, consultants, or telecommuters are not always possible. Keep everything brief and clear. Be timely.

Always ask for questions. Questions raise points that may be overlooked.

Instead of playing telephone or email tag, try playing sneaker mail.*

*Sneaker mail = Communicate in person by walking down the hall.

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Just for fun, here is the first an occasional business related cartoon by Stuart Rosen. Stuart works in a large corporate environment. His work is similar to Dilbert in that it satires work related issues.

True story. A client was assigned the task of identifying an 11-foot display for the front of a new retail store. The client called architects and designers. In the meantime, the client’s manager asked four other employees in the corporate office to identify a potential display piece.

Two days later, there was a team meeting. Each attendee discovered that the others had been asked to identify a display piece. Each could have been working on his or her own workflow. All were disappointed and confused that the manager was so impatient, that he did not trust one person to fulfill the requirement.

What happens when you are assigned a specific project, lead, or account, and your manager has assigned the same project to your colleague? Or work order changes aren’t implemented? Nobody gets anything done.